Continuous Assessment as a Tool for a Quality Curriculum

University College Dublin

School of Education and Lifelong Learning

A Formative Evaluation of the Implementation of the Continuous Assessment Pilot Programme (CAPP) at the Basic School Level in Zambia.

William M. Kapambwe

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Masters of Arts in Education (M.A.Ed) Degree

September, 2006

Head of School: Professor Sheelagh Drudy
Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Marie Clarke

Abstract

The Ministry of Education (MOE) in Zambia has long realised that reform of the examinations system is one single intervention that has a greater impact for the improvement of the quality of teaching and learning in classroom. Many of the of the MOE policy documents have had proposals for the reduction on the emphasis of the high stakes examinations and the introduction of the continuous assessment as a component of the students’ final results, together with the external examinations (MOE, 1996;MOE, 1992;MOE, 1977).

The Continuous Assessment Pilot Programme hereafter called (CAPP) is a response to previous proposal guidelines by the MOE to introduce the use of the CA results with the final examinations in the high stakes examinations at the grade seven level. The preparatory work for the implementation of the programme began in earnest in November 2004 and the implementation in the pilot schools commenced in January 2006.

This thesis deals with the formative evaluation study of the implementation of the CAPP that was conducted between 6th June, 2006 and 6th July 2006 in seven of the eighteen pilot districts of the programme. The purpose of the study was to find out how well the stakeholders understood the objectives of the CAPP and to discover what factors influenced the successful or unsuccessful implementation of the programme.

Chapter one sets the contextual background in which the Zambian education system has been developed and brings out the main issues and problems that have influences educational

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